Francis Blanche
Date of birth: 1921-07-20
Place of birth: Paris, France
Known for: Acting
Also known as: Francis-Jean Blanche
Biography
François Jean Blanche, known as "Francis Blanche" (20 July 1921 – 6 July 1974) was a French actor, singer, humorist and author. He was a very popular figure on stage, radio and in films, during the 1950s and 1960s. His two daughters, Barbara & Dominique, are artists with their studios in Eze. Blanche was born in an artistic family, mainly of stage actors—including his father Louis Blanche and his uncle, Emmanuel Blanche, who was a painter—. He completed his secondary schooling at fourteen, the youngest in France to do so at the time. In the 1940s and 1950s, Blanche was part of Robert Dhéry's theatrical company Les Branquignols, with whom he played in the film Ah! Les belles bacchantes, starring Robert Dhéry, Colette Brosset (Dhéry's then-wife), and Louis de Funès; directed by Jean Loubignac in 1954. Blanche teamed up with Pierre Dac to form a comic duo best remembered for Le Sâr Rabindranath Duval, a sketch about a phony and nonsensical Indian clairvoyant and guru (1957). They also created a popular and equally nonsensical radiophonic series, loosely based on a highly improbable espionage and conspiration plot, Malheur aux barbus, which was broadcast on Paris Inter in 213 episodes from 1951 to 1952. The same plot and characters were revived on Europe 1 in a series called Signé Furax, enjoying no less than 1,034 daily episodes between 1956 and 1960. Both broadcasts were phenomenal audience successes in the pre-television era. Blanche was also renowned for broadcasting phone pranks, in which he entertained listeners by making the most improbable situations sound plausible. He wrote poems, and the lyrics of 673 songs. On stage, he acted in Tartuffe and Néron and, in 1955, Chevalier du Ciel, an operetta by Luis Mariano at the Gaîté-Lyrique theatre. Blanche also enjoyed a successful cinematographic career, both as an actor and scriptwriter. He appeared as a hard-headed German colonel ("Obersturmführer Schulz") opposite Brigitte Bardot in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre (1959). He was one of the favourite actors of French filmmaker Georges Lautner, and played Maître Folace (a shady solicitor counselling a colourful gangster mob) in Les Tontons flingueurs (1963). Blanche also appeared in Boris Vassilief's Les Barbouzes (1964). He delighted in parodying classical music, adapting famous works such as Schubert's "Die Forelle" (The Trout) into a crazy and slightly risqué piece about a 16-year-old romantic girl obsessed with Schubert's song to the point of giving birth to a live trout while performing it on her piano. Similarly, he turned Beethoven's 5th Symphony into a lengthy and quite repetitive musical glorification of the clothes peg and its fictitious inventor, Jérémie-Victor Opdebec. Blanche died at the age of 52, from a heart attack with a background of untreated Type 1 diabetes. He is buried in Èze cemetery. Source: Article "Francis Blanche" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Movie Credits
Male Hunt
1964-09-18
A few stories about marriage and its problems. Antoine is about to marry Gisèle. His friend Julien,
The Seventh Juror
1962-04-18
In a moment of madness a middle-aged, married and respectable pharmacist kills a young woman who is
Le Olimpiadi dei mariti
1960-10-27
The Eroticist
1972-03-16
Senator Pupis feels a strong and uncontrollable urge to grab women's bottoms, a habit than can lead
The Great Spy Chase
1964-12-10
A cold-war spy parody. After the death of an armaments manufacturer, an international group of spies
Crooks in Clover
1963-11-27
An aging gangster, Fernand Naudin is hoping for a quiet retirement when he suddenly inherits a fortu
Thank Heaven for Small Favors
1963-08-28
Bad financial conditions compel an aristocratic family to do strange work.
Sweet and Sour
1963-09-04
Gerard, a young man from a "good family" dreams of becoming an actor. To do this, he follows everywh
People in Luck
1963-04-26
A light French comedy of 5 segments.
The Big Wash
1968-11-12
Sickened to see his students always sleeping in class, a teacher with a colleague and an anarchist s
Erotissimo
1969-06-07
Annie is a middle-age wife, still sexy and pampered by her husband, Phillippe, who is the owner and
The Virgins
1963-05-22
The story of five girls that lose their virginity.
The Green Mare
1959-10-29
A green mare makes the fortune of her owner, the horse dealer Haudouin. Shortly after his death, war
The Great Java
1971-01-13
Five friends come to the city Brizul. Here they want to find Mr Auguste Kougloff who owns them money
Rita the Field Marshal
1967-12-21
A waitress helps a scientist flee the Nazis.
Peek-a-boo
1954-10-15
A small-town policeman is informed that "naked women" are dancing in a revue at a local variety thea
Honoré de Marseille
1956-12-12
As he explains to the journalist who came to interview him, Honoré cultivates, as a perfect Marseill
The Men in the Family
1968-05-08
Gabriel Pelletier, sales manager for a major industrial firm, would be the happiest of men if he did
The Big Grasshopper
1967-01-11
While he is trying to escape from a hit man, Carl is setting up a kidnapping in Beirut. He gets lost
Some Like It... Cold
1960-02-17
The old Valmorin died 200 years ago. The notary tells the family about the inheritance: the one who
The Stud
1970-02-13
Veterinary surgeon William Chaminade is having a peaceful holiday in the South of France when he is
Ils ont vingt ans
1950-12-15
The former "J3" who used to be pupils at the Coutances high school are currently students in Paris.
Champagne for Savages
1964-08-26
A diverse group of friends gather to celebrate a witless woman's birthday in this comedy drama set i
Du mou dans la gâchette
1967-08-30
Nicolas Pappas and Léon Dubois, two particularly calamitous killers, arrive in Paris, where a gangst
Hitch-Hike
1962-03-16
Agathe, 18, dreams of change. Gone are her vacations on the rainy beaches of Belgium! She decides to
Good Enough to Eat
1951-06-08
Rose Chaperon is asked by her confectioner mother Mathilde to bring jewels to her sick grandmother,
The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers
1964-08-14
Five swindle stories, taking place in five international cities: Tokyo, Japan ("Fumiko's Five Benefa
Dandelions by the Roots
1964-05-06
Jockey Jack has a bill open with a gangster just released from jail. He somehow manages to parry the
The Big Scare
1964-10-28
Two police inspectors pursue a dangerous counterfeiter on the run.
Les pieds nickelés
1964-09-30
Three tramps in search of adventure and fortune decide to try their luck at swindling. After an init
Love and the Frenchwoman
1960-09-16
The seven stages in the life of the modern Frenchwomen are disclosed by seven directors in a witty w
Snobs!
1962-09-05
Four vice-presidents fight among themselves to reach the top post after the president dies. Their wi
Les gros malins
1969-05-13
Paul Blanc runs a butcher's shop with his Neapolitan wife, the vivacious Giulia. One night, thanks t
Les 100 vies de Francis Blanche
2022-03-19
Comedian, actor, author, director and emblematic figure of the French stage and cinema of the 50s an
La Grande Maffia
1971-09-17
After receiving a mobster's heart as a transplant, a modest bank teller embarks on a life of crimina
Order of the Daisy
1967-01-20
Matou is an innocuous, gentle-looking man. He is married to a formidable, even a frightening woman,
Trust Me!
1954-05-17
Max, an illusionist as unlucky as he is skilled, would like to marry his boss's daughter, but his bo
Tartarin de Tarascon
1962-11-22
A well-to-do bourgeois, Tartarin lives in Tarascon, a small southern town, among friends who, like h
Who Stole the Body?
1963-02-01
Edouard and Félix work in a real estate agency. One day, they are threatened with dismissal if they
Les gros bras
1963-12-31
Madame Andromèze's diamond bracelet has been stolen from the plane taking Nicole from Rome to Paris.
I've Had It
1973-02-23
A Parisian named Cartier living in Quebec City and employee of a major English Canadian insurance co
The Vendetta
1962-04-17
Arbella is a charming village in Corsica. It's such a pleasant place to live that Monsieur Lauriston
Les Gorilles
1964-12-23
A confused pair of airport luggage carriers get involved in the disappearance of some suitcases.
The Hideout
1962-09-21
Set during World War II in France, the story begins when a resistance fighter is given shelter in an
Le canard en fer blanc
1967-04-22
In South America, airplane pilot François Cartier is searching for treasure for a group of political
Life is beautiful
1956-10-05
Paris, 1956. Everything is going smoothly for Roger, married to Denise, and Paul, married to Monique
Are You Engaged to a Greek Sailor or an Airline Pilot?
1971-04-15
Roger Blanchard has a busy life. On the family side, he is married and has two children, aged ten an
The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot
1973-10-24
Colinot's world is turned upside down when his fiancee is kidnapped.
No Pockets in a Shroud
1974-10-25
In the newspaper he has just founded, journalist Dolannes exposes all the wheeling and dealing and s
A Whale That Had a Toothache
1975-04-15
Bernardette is feeling bored in a country house. She decides to send weekend invitations to a lot of
The Bear
1960-12-14
A mild-mannered zookeeper has to contend with his tyrannical boss and a talking lovesick bear.
The Abominable Man of Customs
1963-03-01
Two rival gangs fight over drug trafficking. An American killer named Timetti Le Muet arrives at Mar
Il furto è l'anima del commercio!?...
1971-07-09
Libero Sbardelloni, newly married, cannot find work in Rome, so he moves to Naples, where Baron Gaet
La Dernière Bourrée à Paris
1973-10-31
Young Berthe, deeply moved by a cinema screening of the notoriously sultry Le Dernier Tango à Paris,
Les malabars sont au parfum
1966-02-02
All sorts of spies are buzzing around Michel, whose cow, Dorothée, produces 200 liters of milk a day
I. You. They.
1973-06-28
Little did this pretty brunette know when she applied for a babysitting job that her employer was an
Racconti romani di una ex-novizia
1973-09-21
A girl who entered the convent pushed by devotion is depraved, marries, betrays her husband and beco
Too Late to Love
1959-05-05
Walter, a reporter and photographer, meets Catherine in a train. The young lawyer recently gained an
Poussez pas grand-père dans les cactus
1969-11-05
Alphonse flees to Paris to escape his wife's despotism. Intoxicated by the frenzied pace of Parisian
The Indestructible
1959-04-29
Augustin Robustal and his wife Lilane run the riverside café "Au joyeux gardon" and if the "gardon"
La Polka des menottes
1957-09-04
Elisabeth is persuaded to have killed her noisy upstairs neighbor, scientist Charles Magne. To save
Say it with Flowers
1974-09-04
The action begins in black and white, like a memory. Klaus is a Nazi military who has just failed an
The Little Professor
1958-09-26
Naturally optimistic and mischievous, Jérôme Aubin crossed the time of his adolescence, around 1945,
Requiem pour un caïd
1964-07-25
Police officer Antoine Delille is in charge of putting an end to the activities of a "kingpin", Jo P
Match contre la mort
1959-12-02
The Lourmel couple are taking part in the final round of a TV game show: the wife has to answer ques
The Motorcycle Cops
1959-03-18
Marc, a motorcycle brigadier, is engaged to the charming Véronique. But his future brother-in-law, t
A Dog, A Mouse and a Sputnik
1958-09-09
A French animal lover protects a dog and a mouse wanted by Soviet scientists for their space program
Long Live the Duke!
1960-03-14
A Belgian village is struck by repeated flooding, all this because they lack a new sewer. But the Mi
Pas de caviar pour tante Olga
1965-08-13
Rosa, a housekeeper in a NATO office in Paris, steals a micro film for her lover whom she hopes to m
Accroche-toi, y'a du vent!
1962-04-20
A self-taught amateur detective who learned his trade from a book finds himself caught between two g
The Real Bargain
1965-03-09
The eccentric Comtesse de Saint-Plâs sells a black Citroën DS to car dealer Paul Souflé. He sells it
Long Live Henry IV... Long Live Love!
1961-04-04
Henri IV falls in love with the young Charlotte de Montmorency, 40 years his junior. The king decide
The Oldest Profession
1967-04-07
A collection of sketches that tells the story of prostitution through the ages.
Alice au pays des merveilles
1970-12-22
Alice sets off in pursuit of a mysterious white rabbit in a hurry. After a dizzying fall into a deep
Salut Berthe !
1968-08-20
Adrien Chautard, a major industrialist from Abidjan, has been chosen to replace an expert on the off
Aux frais de la princesse
1969-07-04
The Eloi family, who have just won the "model family" competition, set off for winter sports. Also o
Scandal Man
1972-02-14
Marc, is a reporter in a tabloid. At the "Bongo Club", he photographs a young blond woman kissing a
Faites donc plaisir aux amis
1969-02-05
Jean-Louis, a garage worker and womanizer, asks his friend and boss to reverse roles for a while, to
Adieu Berthe
1970-03-21
Little Girls and High Finance
1960-10-30
A low level official and a prostitute both try to commit suicide and fail, afterwards he becomes a p
Belle de Jour
1967-05-24
Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyd
House of Sin
1961-10-25
In this mystery, a nouveau-riche Frenchman returns to his Parisian home after finding a fortune in A
Ces messieurs de la gâchette
1970-04-08
Gabriel Pelletier's life is no bed of roses. Not because of his job: he is a successful sales manage
Midnight... Quai de Bercy
1953-05-21
Having recently moved into her new apartment, Irène Cazenave, the widow of a well-known police offic
The Great Gadget
1967-06-21
A scientist from the East happens in France where it is supposed to improve one of his inventions. B
Operation Gold Ingot
1962-03-13
The owner of a high-tech heating mechanism is being forced by gangsters to help them in a plot to st
By the Blood of Others
1974-03-07
In a little French town everything goes on as usual and people seem friendly and good-natured, until
Le Solitaire
1973-10-24
Babette Goes to War
1959-09-18
Comedy about a naive French country girl in London who helps the war effort by parachuting into Germ
The Sleeping Sentinel
1966-01-21
In 1812, Napoleon I set off for the Russian Campaign and planned to spend a night in Châlons-sur-Mar
Qu'est-ce qui fait courir les crocodiles ?
1971-05-21
To replace Hector Grofenol, the tyrannical boss of the "Tout pour le camping" factory, who has been
The Sad Sack
1950-11-10
Thanks to a bit of string-pulling by his aunt, Jean du Bois d'Ombelles, a young recruit who has blue
The Girl of a Thousand Months
1961-11-05
A fashion designer rents his villa to a woman before leaving to go abroad. The daughter of the woman
Romulus and the Sabines
1961-11-15
The classic story from the early days of Rome where there are no women. Romulus, the founder of Rome
Le bourgeois gentil mec
1969-05-21
Monsieur Gentil runs a perfume factory. He is a shy man, bullied by Madame Marthe, the manager, and
We Like It Cold
1960-09-20
A farcical account of the happenings in Rome in 1943 when the allied army and the partisans fight th
Jaloux comme un tigre
1964-06-16
Henri has a beautiful wife, Sophie. Unfortunately, suffering from an unhealthy jealousy, he spends m
Under Your Hat
1965-09-03
An illegal gambling den where players can lose millions... and the owners make their fortune.
Les baratineurs
1965-02-01
A precious work of art from the Italian Renaissance is stolen and passes through many hands before e
Easy Come Easy Go
1960-05-26
Édouard and Félix, two inseparable friends, live off the times and do odd jobs, sharing a tiny apart
Les Livreurs
1961-07-24
These two friendly delivery boys from a Parisian department store not only take their job to heart a
Un merveilleux parfum d'oseille
1969-08-14
Baron Yves de Kerfunte learns of his uncle's death. Overjoyed, he is astonished to discover that sev
OK Patron
1974-06-01
Mario, the head of the Mafia in France, has just been mortally wounded. His "companion" decides to f
Anyone Can Kill Me
1957-12-06
The holdup of the bank is a success. All happened according to plan. Now, Cyril Gad and his four acc
Clémentine chérie
1964-08-04
Gaston Bellus, is the director of a textile house, and the research laboratory makes a sensational d
Toto in Paris
1958-10-23
Duclos's son, a worldly gangster, is compromised in a case of which he is innocent. The proof of thi
Le pillole di Ercole
1960-09-10
A doctor unwittingly drinks an aphrodisiac fluid and thus has relationships with an acquaintance's w
Les Jambes en l'air
1971-05-13
Story of a marginal couple, César and Favouille, who set out to find their youngest daughter, who ru
Les enquiquineurs
1966-11-09
Monsieur Eloy, his wife and their ten-year-old son, Zizi, are off to their country home for the week
The Killer is Listening
1948-01-01
April fools in a studio where a radio host pretends to shoot dead all the performers....till a true
Actualités télérévisées
1964-04-01
Frédérica
1942-11-18
Gilbert, poet and singer, is about to marry Lilette but deep inside himself he is not quite sure tha
The Terror with Cross-Eyes
1972-09-02
To gain fame quickly - three actors - Mino, Giacinto and Mirella, stage a fake murder (Mirella is th
Comiques de toujours (Vol. 1 à 4)
2009-10-13
The Black Tulip
1964-02-28
Aristocrat Guillaume de Saint Preux leads a double life as a masked bandit known as the Black Tulip.
Deux Romains en Gaule
1967-02-25
This film is directly inspired by Asterix, created by René Goscinny and Albert UDERZO, chronicles th
Chance at Love
1964-10-30
Four sketches revolving around the themes of luck and love.
Pierre Dac et Francis Blanche : Le Meilleur du Parti d'en Rire
2020-12-01
France, Incorporated
1974-06-04
In the year 2222, a former drug dealer is kept in a state of hibernation. Reanimated, he tells his s